


scare away the nightmares

by Ghostoshima



Series: i'll find a way to make you happy [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Fluff, Gift Fic, M/M, One Shot, Prompt Fic, Romance, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Trans Male Character, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24636907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostoshima/pseuds/Ghostoshima
Summary: his touch sends electricity throughout his bodyAKAwhen nightmares wake you up, it's time to settle in someone else's bed.
Relationships: Cloud Strife & Original Male Character(s), Cloud Strife/Original Character(s)
Series: i'll find a way to make you happy [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1781323
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	scare away the nightmares

**Author's Note:**

  * For [comaxviii (comaliesvii)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/comaliesvii/gifts).



> _"maybe a fall asleep together/wake up from nightmares comfort or something."_  
>  a prompt sent to me by [comalies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jagkass/pseuds/comalies), feautring his oc, vivian. i can only hope i did him justice.

“I can’t sleep.” 

His frame is small, not difficult to distinguish at the foot of the bed, a silhouette outlined by the dim lights of the door behind them. The entire party all sleep nestled within their beds, at the inn they stay at, Cloud within his own. He had awoken through the sound of tossing and turning in the bed beside him, its occupant slipping out, now standing right in front of him. Cloud could barely make out what they were doing, their arm up, the back of their head rubbing their eyes. 

“Can I slip into bed with you?”

Cloud sits up from his bed. “Yeah, go ahead… Vivian, is that you?” He could make out what seems to be a nod. He shuffles, tossing the covers open, the figure climbs into bed, arranging themselves right alongside him, they slip the covers onto themselves again. 

Vivian, his name is, a boy he met at Midgar, with a hood that covers most of his features, completely cloaking him from outsiders. Cloud knows now that is what Vivian prefers. But here, he discarded the hood, feeling brave enough to show his face to everyone. There are freckles sprayed across dark skin, shoulder length brown hair with blue dye decorating the bottom, and most peculiar of all, there was his one green eye, another completely black with a white ring for a pupil. Cloud, much like the rest of the party, hadn’t asked about it, they felt it was probably inappropriate. 

Prior to climbing into his bed, during all that tossing and turning, he heard Vivian whimper in his sleep, and Cloud could only guess why that was. Night terrors. They weren’t anything new to Cloud. They played in his head as if he were stuck in a movie theater, bits and pieces of his memories strung along here and there, and not a whole lot of them made any sense, but they were enough for his heart to pound rapidly upon awakening, almost every night, in a cold sweat. He didn’t like to bother anyone with his issues, he kept to himself when it came to that sort of stuff. 

“So…” He starts off, in a hushed tone, with the small man beside him, he seems fragile by nature but is fierce in a fight. But he seems so gentle now. Cloud couldn’t figure out the words he wanted to say, he lies there, tongue-tied; he clears his throat. “... I, uh, do you need anything?” 

He could barely make out Vivian shaking his head. 

“This is what I need,” he responds. 

“Oh…” Cloud feels real foolish, he can feel his face flush and is thankful for the dark room that hides it. An arm snakes around his, he can feel Vivian’s head lean against his shoulder, his body warm against his. Cloud clears his throat, it is the only audible thing throughout the entire room. After a brief pause, Cloud speaks. “You sure everything’s alright?” 

“Mm… had a bad dream, is all.” Cloud could tell by the sound of Vivian’s voice that he is tired, it drips heavy with sleep, he wonders if he’ll fall asleep at any moment. Now that Cloud is awake, his mind is more alert, he isn’t sure if the same can be said about him. 

“Wanna talk about it?” Cloud asks, staring right up at the pitch-black ceiling. He half expects Vivian not to respond, possibly drift back into sleep, but he stirs for a bit before answering. 

“It’s… Shinra.” 

Cloud met Vivian in an abandoned home, walls tattered or caved in, piles of bricks here and there, and broken windows. No one occupied the space. A perfectly clear tune from a piano played within it, Cloud was drawn to it. He had been out and about Midgar, moving through the slums, threatening thugs that attempted to mug him ( they almost always backed down ) He had time, before the next Avalanche mission. There he heard it, the tune being carried in the air, the curiosity in him piqued. Cloud entered the building, the door almost hanging off the hinges. Dust collected the broken chairs, tables, counters, and even the floors, it made him cough. The floorboards creaked under his steps as he made his way further in, attempting to find the source of the music. 

There was food littered on the tables, opened bags of snacks, half-empty bottles of water, and candy wrappers, and to a corner, a mattress, with a pillow and blanket on it. Just as Cloud was about to inspect it closer, the music stopped abruptly, a yelp caught him off guard, he immediately unsheathed his Buster Sword and ran into the next room—the living room.

A man in a black suit—what looked to be a Turk—stood in front of a small figure with their hood covering most of their face and body, standing up from a piano that stood against the wall of the room. The Turk didn’t look familiar to him, with a mess of dark hair and olive skin tone. He didn’t seem threatening… but the figure still stood in a stance that indicated they were ready for a fight. 

“I don’t know who you are…”

_ He really didn’t know him.  _

“But you better  _ back off… _ ”

The Turk turned back, with a shocked expression, but that quickly transformed into a wide smile. He whispered a few honeyed words here and there, mentions of ‘ _ hey cutie, you come here often?’ _ Cloud scowled. 

“Are you an idiot? I _said_ you better back off.” Laughter emitted the Turk, he casually made his way toward Cloud, his weapon—a polearm—up. Cloud, in turn, raised his sword. After a scuffle, the Turk backed off with a couple of cuts and bruises. He had taken a beating but he managed to take off out the back door but before that, he made a promise to come back, and another smile directed toward Cloud, he kissed the air and left. 

Lowering his sword, Cloud turned back to the cloaked stranger, their posture changed but they still seemed alert; they were silent. “Are you okay?”

They nod. 

“What did he want with you?” 

“I—I don’t know…” They rubbed their arm, their head lowered so that it hid their face completely. Cloud seemed skeptical. 

“The Turks don’t go after just  _ anyone,”  _ he said. 

“Y—yeah, they won’t leave me alone.” 

He didn’t mention it any further than that, Cloud didn’t push it, Cloud offered him help, with a low price of gil. Though they mentioned they were broke, Cloud had made some exceptions. That’s all it took for Vivian to start following him around, it became less about the money, more about the company. 

And he actually enjoyed Vivian’s company. 

Cloud found himself going back to the memory of their first meeting every now and then, especially this night, as Vivian laid right next to him. 

“Shinra,” he repeats. “The Turks?”

“Something like that,” Vivian mutters, sleep in his tone. Cloud wonders if he should leave him be. “It’s Shinra in general.” 

“Yeah, you told me they won’t leave you alone…” Cloud pauses. “Vivian—why is that? Why won’t they leave you alone?” Cloud knows Vivian is pondering then, there is a pause, it hangs on for what felt like a long, long time, Cloud figures he didn’t want to talk about it. Cloud is about to leave it alone, till Vivian speaks.

“My eye… they did that to my eye.”

“Oh.”

The black one. 

“They did all sorts of things to me—I was a lab rat to them…” 

“What did they do?” 

He could feel as Vivian’s body stiffens, Cloud clears his throat, his ears feel hot, maybe he asked for too much. “Nevermind then,” he says. “You should get some sleep, we’re leaving first thing tomorrow morning. I mean,  _ can  _ you sleep? With the nightmares and all.” 

Vivian is silent once more. “I—I don’t know,” but Cloud can tell that he’s been tired for a while now. “I’d like to lay here and talk a little more with you if that’s okay.” 

“Alright, uh…” Cloud wasn’t feeling sleepy anyway. “What would you like to know?” 

“D’you get nightmares at all?” 

The question catches him off guard, Cloud swallows thickly. His dreams were often filled with ashes and blood, sometimes his own, sometimes not, it resulted in many sleepless nights that left him waking up in a cold sweat. And none of them made any real sense. They were broken into pieces, one scene started then ended abruptly, another began right in the middle, no beginning to explain what led up to it. Most of all, they were all about Sephiroth. Cloud standing in the Jenova chamber, Sephiroth perched up top where Jenova’s tank was. That’s it. It always ended there. Just like in his story back at Kalm. 

“... Sometimes,” is what he could manage to get out. 

“How do you deal with them?” Vivian asks. 

“I just…  _ do. _ ” Cloud isn’t sure what Vivian wants him to say but the truth is, he often didn’t know  _ how  _ to deal with the nightmares that plague his mind, they threaten to swallow him up and all he does is deal with it. He just deals with it. And that makes his throat ache. “I do,” he repeats. “I try not to think about it too much, I… focus on something else—Sephiroth. I focus on Sephiroth. Nothing else.”

Vivian makes a noise, sounding something like a disgruntled whine, and that’s when Cloud knew that was probably not the right answer. Cloud could feel the embarrassment heat up the tip of his ears. 

“It’s hard to focus,” Vivian says, “when everything is screaming at you all at once.” 

Now,  _ that  _ Cloud had experience with, but it is  _ what  _ that screamed at him that made things difficult for him to think properly. It, more than often, left him with a throbbing headache. Those happen more frequently than he’d like. His dreams were also filled with those screams—literal screams that came out of everywhere, hitting him all at once, they were deafening, till he found himself enveloped by it. Now, how the hell did he actually deal with any of that? Cloud finds himself contemplating it, he can’t give a clear answer to Vivian, he can’t even help himself half of the time. How can he possibly provide any advice? 

He feels… a tad useless. He wants to help, he truly does, but the best that he can do is to tell Vivian to get over it. He can’t even follow up on his own advice. 

“It’s like…” Cloud says. “It’s like when everything wants your attention and no matter how hard you try to turn away, you can’t.” 

“Yeah…! It’s exactly like that.” 

Though his instincts told him to behave ignorantly, Cloud knows he can’t do that, not when deep down he knows that’s all bullshit. If he even tried, he might end up choking on his own delusions. Sometimes, he wonders if he’s already doing that. The truth is, he knows  _ exactly  _ how Vivian feels. He knows  _ exactly  _ what he meant but he feels the need to hide away from that. To continue that facade. How unfair that must be for Vivian. 

“Are you okay?” Vivian whispers, close to his ear, his breath on Cloud’s jaw; it sent shivers down his spine. “You haven’t said anything.” 

It took him a long while to realize that he was silent for a good long minute, maybe several, Cloud didn’t keep track of time, he just zoned away. “I’m fine,” Cloud says. “I just… I was thinking.”

He feels Vivian’s grip on his arm tighten, bringing it close to his body; it is warm upon touch, their fingers laced together as he holds his hand firmly within his own. Cloud doesn’t move away. 

“Maybe you should sleep,” Vivian mumbles, muffled, with his lips pressed up against his arm, the vibration of his words tickles his skin. “It’s getting late.”

“What about the nightmares?” Cloud asks. “Aren’t you afraid of… falling back asleep?” Maybe he’s the one who is afraid. He could feel Vivian shaking his head as his nose rubs him side to side. 

“Don’t worry about me.” 

“I can’t help but worry,” Cloud said, with a chuckle, then a clear of his throat. 

“I don’t think I ever heard you laugh before,” Vivian said, Cloud can hear the smile in his voice. 

“I laugh! It’s just I…”

“You’re a tough guy who thinks he’s too good for laughing.” There is laughter of his own. 

“No way, you just don’t pay attention enough.” 

Vivian’s laughter is a little more audible but he quickly hushes as he remembers he’s still in a room full of sleeping occupants, that’s when he clears his throat, he re-buries his face onto Cloud’s shoulder. Again, Cloud doesn’t move, he doesn’t disturb him in any way. Part of him even admits that he liked the affection, how much less alone he feels with Vivian by his side. 

“Thank you,” Vivian says.

“Hm, for what?” 

“Uh, n—nothing. Just… thank you.” Vivian coughs, clearing his throat. “It’s just, laying here, talking to you, it makes me feel less alone, so… thank you.” 

“Oh,” Cloud clears his throat, there’s that silence again but this time Cloud is the one who is quick to fill that silence in. “Did you escape?”

“Huh?”

“Shinra. Did you escape? I mean, you’re here for a reason, right?” 

“I mean, I guess I did.” 

“You  _ guess? _ ”

“I mean… it’s a lot to explain, I’d probably bore you. Besides, we talked enough about me, why don’t we talk about  _ you  _ for a change?” 

Vivian pulls Cloud’s arm over his head, draping it on his shoulder, Cloud feels himself flush but he still doesn’t pull away. 

“What do you want to know?” 

“I want to know more about your family.” 

“What’s there to say? It was just me and my mom, dad died when I was young—nothing I haven’t already told you. I guess I'm a boring person.”

“That’s not true! You’re far from boring. I’m interested in  _ everything  _ you have to say.” 

“Not a lot of people are…” Except, maybe, Tifa and Aerith.

“Well, they’re wrong. Everything about you is interesting, your history, your occupation, I even want to know about your time in SOLDIER, everything about you fascinates me.” 

“I thought you  _ hated  _ SOLDIER.” And anything relating to Shinra as a whole. But Cloud couldn’t blame him one bit. Shinra was responsible for almost every issue the world had, they single-handedly ruined a portion of it. And they were responsible for the scars in Vivian—both literal and figurative. 

“I do—did? I know I don’t hate you. I don’t think I could ever hate you.” 

“But I… I used to be in SOLDIER, I was the enemy, I supported what they did. I was everything you hate, Vi, I don’t think I could ever… come back from that.” But he did feel remorse, it was there in his voice, how somber it got, how his heart sank. It is something even Cloud didn’t think possible, he who once wanted nothing more than the pay provided from his mercenary work. He wonders if Vivian could tell, and the tightening grip of his hand indicated he did. 

“But you’re not like that anymore,” Vivian tells him. “Right?”

“I… don’t know.” He is Cloud. First-class SOLDIER. Now a merc for hire. It didn’t get any more simpler than that. So he thinks. Maybe Vivian had too much faith in him, maybe Cloud didn’t have enough. How is he supposed to say? But then Sephiroth came into mind and how it became less about the pay, more about stopping a mad man, but could he honestly say he is  _ better _ for that? Vivian somehow sees that. 

He feels something warm brush against his knuckles, fingers curl as Vivian grasps it firmly in one hand, it takes a minute but Cloud realizes that Vivian is kissing his hand; his heart jumps and the heat in his cheeks illuminate brightly. 

“... You should get some sleep,” mutters Cloud, with a dry throat, his tongue like sandpaper. 

“We’ve been telling each other that for the past couple of minutes,” Vivian says, laughing. “Besides, I like that we get a chance to talk to each other like this. Sometimes it’s hard, with everything going on, I like having a moment where it’s just the two of us, even if there are others around us.” And they still had to speak in whispers. “You’re one of a kind, Mr. Strife.” 

_ Mr. Strife.  _

That actually makes him scoff, even when he knows Vivian is being ironic. “I better be, I didn’t work hard at becoming a SOLDIER for nothing.” He can hear his giggle in the darkness. 

“See? You’re so confident! No one can do it like you.”

Again, he feels himself blush, this time with flattery. The tough guy exterior he tries so hard to maintain melts away. He doesn’t realize that he is smiling till the muscles on his face relax. No words come to him. Despite the flattery, he wasn’t one to over-welcome his boldness. Vivian’s hand had held his own so tightly, he had almost forgotten that they were intertwined. And still, neither of them pull away. It almost feels like Vivian is afraid to let go as if he were to fall if he did. 

“I feel better, Cloud.”

“Hm?”

“I feel better knowing you’re here with me, to scare away the nightmares.” 

Cloud had to stop himself from scoffing again. “I’m not doing anything.” 

“You’re wrong, Cloud… you’re always helping out… You’ve helped me before, you help me now.” Vivian’s words slow down, moving along like molasses, tattered, as his voice croaks gently, finally slipping away as he drifts off to sleep. “Without you… I don’t know if I’d be here… Thank you…” He inhales deeply, releases it, then goes quiet. Cloud waits but hears nothing more, Vivian lies still, his sleep uninterrupted. Cloud sighs, long and winded, he closes his eyes as he leans back against his pillow, eyes closing, the distant chirping of birds can be heard as he begins to drift away in his own sleep. 

Their hands do not slip away from one another, not even by an inch.

**Author's Note:**

> the flirtatious turk featured in his story is also comalies' oc, that is why he is unfamiliar to cloud.  
> though it is never mentioned in this fic, vivian is a transman, it's an important feature to him as my friend is a transman as well.


End file.
